This is the kind of creative and thoughtful thinking our city needs:

Restrooms located on the first floor of City Hall will be open overnight as part of the Mayor’s Street Access for Everyone (SAFE) Initiative to increase downtown livability.

The new hours, from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m., are expected to be in place by August 2nd. Currently, City Hall restrooms are open to the public from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. The additional hours will increase the City’s public restroom capacity during hours when no other public restrooms are available.

The SAFE Initiative was launched on May 24, 2006 to develop comprehensive and community-driven strategies to make Portland’s streets open and accessible for all members of the community.

The initiative includes providing day shelters for the homeless during hours when most shelters providing services are closed; increasing the number of benches; opening public restrooms and enacting a sidewalk obstruction ordinance that prohibits sitting or lying on sidewalks in the downtown and Lloyd District during business hours.

The City Council voted last month to require 24-hour access to restrooms before the sidewalk obstruction ordinance could take effect.

I was one of those who told the city 24-hour access to restrooms was needed and Mayor Potter has responded to that request. I’m not surprised. When he was the police chief he once offered to open up the Police Bureau as an emergency shelter on cold winter nights.

As I recall, the City Council also required that before the sit-lie ordinance goes in effect the city would provide additional benches for people to sleep on.